As Yves Saint Laurent said himself, “The most beautiful makeup of a woman is passion, but cosmetics are easier to buy.” I have to say that this is especially true when you can customize your own piece of luxurious makeup. When I heard that my local Nordstrom was providing engraving onto YSL lipsticks or perfume bottles this week, I had to check it out myself! While YSL products carry the high-end price tag, their quality and glamorous delivery earn this fashion house its rightful place within the luxury goods market.

First, let’s start with picking out the product. YSL offers a variety of lip products from traditional lipsticks to liquid balms to stains to glosses. I opted for the classic Rouge Pur Couture lipstick ($37… eeek, no comment!). Next, pick a shade of pink, red, purple, peach, etc. You name it, and they have the color (or rather, the number) for you! It can be a bit tricky when choosing your shade since the lipsticks are labeled with their color number rather than name, by which they are normally swatched and pictured online. Luckily, I already had an idea of what I was looking for. Given its steep price tag, I wasn’t looking for a flashy or “special occasion” color. Instead, I wanted a versatile, low maintenance shade that I could sport in the office or wear casually on the weekends. I also wanted a lipstick that could go with almost any eyeshadow look. Basically, I was looking for a nude-ish color (big surprise…NOT! haha).

Helpful Tip: If you have a favorite lipstick from another brand, bring it to the store and find a similar YSL dupe. This guarantees that you’ll wear that particular YSL shade too. I took 2 shades from MAC (Velvet Teddy and Faux) that I wear religiously and started swatching YSL shades in search of any similarities. The sales associate was also very helpful with this! We narrowed it down to shades #70 – Le Nu and #66 – Rosewood/Bois De Rose.  Both have satin finishes so though opaque, there is still a slight sheen when applied. Le Nu is one of YSL’s most popular shades being a “your lips but better” type of color. To me, this seemed to match Faux more closely. However, being so popular, they were out of stock. As fate would have it, my decision was easily made and I went with Rosewood, which is more of a warm nude (pictured above).

Finally, time for the show! To be honest, I assumed that there was going to be an actual person doing the engraving. I’ve seen artists hand painting onto perfume bottles at other department stores like Bloomingdales during special events. So I was somewhat surprised to discover that my Nordstrom had a machine to do the personalization. With the help of an iPad, I was able to choose my name/message, pick a font, and watch the magic happen! Check out my video clip below!

Honestly, I really enjoyed the experience of choosing and watching my personalized lipstick come to life in person. However, this was only a temporary offering at my local Nordstrom. Luckily, YSL now let’s buyers customize their own products online!  The engraving is also complimentary on their website! Check it out here! The also offer additional options online for the design of the cap. Choose from classic gold, lips, starts, hearts, or sparkle. Note that there is an additional $3.00 fee for any cap other than the classic gold. Once, you choose your shade, you can input a message (up to 14 characters) or your monogram (3 letters). You are limited to letters A-Z, numbers 0-9 and symbols ‘.-_!@:# However, I did not see the option to choose your font online.

As you can see in the pictures, I chose to put Dr. Healy on my lipstick. I acknowledge that this glamorizes my career, which in reality, requires a lot of hard work, empathy, and patience everyday. However, I love finding that balance of being a motivated professional and still enjoying a little luxury and glamour. After all, #shecanbeboth !

I hope you enjoyed hearing about this little experience! What would you engrave on a lipstick or perfume bottle? Comment below!